A high-voltage switch of the type mentioned initially is described in the prior European patent application file reference EP 06 40 5112.1, filed on Mar. 14, 2006. This switch contains a quenching chamber having an arcing contact arrangement held in a housing, and having an exhaust unit which is integrated in the housing and has an exhaust volume bounded by the housing and an outlet which is passed through the housing for exhaust gases. An exhaust module in the form of a pot is placed over the exhaust unit, arranged coaxially. The housing and the pot bound a mouth section of an exhaust channel with an electrically shielded, axially aligned outlet flow opening. The exhaust gases therefore in general only insignificantly adversely affect the quality of gas insulation between a metal container which holds the quenching chamber and is filled with insulating gas, and the housing, so that the switch can also be loaded with high-power switching arcs that last for a long time as is the consequence, for example, of reducing the high-voltage frequency from, for example, 50 to 16⅔ Hz.